UPDATE 1-Two former investment bankers rejoin Merrill

* Chapin, Kaplan will be exec vice chairmen global banking

* Both were at Merrill for over two decades

* They will report to Tom Montag (Changes story source to company statement, adds dateline, details on hires)

NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Two former Merrill Lynch investment bankers, Sam Chapin and Todd Kaplan, will return to the firm as executive vice chairmen of global banking, Bank of America (BAC.N) said on Monday.

Chapin will be based in New York, while Kaplan, recently at hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, will be based in Chicago. Prior to leaving the bank last year, Chapin was with Merrill for 26 years, and Kaplan for 22 years.

The pair will report to Tom Montag, Bank of America Merrill Lynch global banking and markets president, who joined Bank of America through its acquisition of investment bank and brokerage Merrill at the end of 2008.

Kaplan, a leveraged finance specialist who joined Chicago-based Citadel's investment banking unit last March, resigned from Citadel this month. [ID:nN16159730]

At Merrill, Chapin was previously vice chairman and member of the executive client coverage group, while Kaplan was most recently head of the global principal investments division.

A wave of Merrill staff departed after the largest U.S. bank acquired the company. But recently Bank of America has been hiring and rebuilding the investment banking unit.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank recently reshuffled the division and named Alastair Borthwick and Lisa Carnoy co-heads of global capital markets. [ID:nN09245880] (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore and Elinor Comlay in New York; Editing by Anshuman Daga and John Wallace)